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Keith
Murray
on
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This imposing building is an unexpected site in one of the side streets of Esh Winning. It was designed by local architect
J
A Robson, built in 1923 and is a late example of the Edwardian Baroque style. The hail was built as a memorial to the miners killed in the First World War and was used as a meeting hall and community centre for the village. It must be one of the grandest village halls in the north of England.
The principal materials are light red engineering brick, laid in stretcher bond with elaborate yellow terra-cotta dressings. It is a symmetrical building with two end bays and a centre bay containing a segmental pediment and a clock, while the end bays have open pediments. The parapet has balustraded terra-cotta panels. The roof is flat topped and hipped with steeply pitched tiled sides and is surmounted by a timber lantern and cupola on the ridge.
In addition to the usual community facilities, the building included accommodation for a cinema, swimming bath, billiard room and library. It was financed by the miners themselves, who contributed 3d per week to the construction costs, and by the mine owners, Richard Pease & Co. who put in £3,000 (approximately 30% of the construction costs). The Pease family are well known as the Quaker industrial and railway pioneers from Darlington.
By the late 1920s, commercial pressures forced the conversion of the whole building to use as a cinema and ballroom known as The Majestic. This use continued until 1956 when the ballroom was closed and part of the building converted to a shirt factory.
In 1962 the whole building was closed down but was revived in 1964 by Fairworld Ltd which converted it into a social club, bingo hall and discotheque. In the 1970s this also closed and the building has since been disused apart from sporadic use for storage.
It is a classic case of a very high quality building in the wrong location, given that one could think of several appropriate alternative uses.
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Keith Murray is with
Council
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Disused for nearly a quarter of a century but for sporadic use for storage.
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CONTEXT 42
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